​​SUBJECTS: Digital arrivals cards, legal action against Telegram platform, calls for citizens to be denied entry, ABF resources, border control

MATT SMITH: Good morning, my name is Matt Smith, I’m the federal member for Leichhardt. With me is Minister Tony Burke, Assistant Minister Nita Green, and Richard who is in charge of everything that we see here.

We’re really lucky here in the far north. We have the Great Barrier Reef, we have the Daintree, we’re the gateway to the Cape. In fact, we’re the gateway to the South Pacific. People from all over the world come here to enjoy our natural beauty, to enjoy our hospitality, to spend their money to boost the economy, to make Cairns what it is. But the thing about international flying is the last 25 to 30 minutes as you’re coming down and you’re excited to start your day, they pull out that yellow card and they say, “Fill this out.” Now, if you’ve travelled from Los Angeles and you’ve been in the air for 12 to 13 hours, you don’t know where your passport is, you can’t find a pen, and the last thing you want to do in your sleep-deprived state is fill out that yellow form.

The great news is we’re phasing it out. We’re bringing in a fully electronic version. This has been developed with Qantas and airports around Australia – 450,000 people have already used it. This is going to make getting to Australia better, easier, so you can start your holiday or enjoy your trip and come home without worrying about where the pen is, where the passport is. You can get on with your day, get through customs and see everything that we have to offer up here.

I’m going to leave the details, of course, to the minister who will talk more about the impact on the tourism industry. Minister Burke.

SENATOR NITA GREEN: Thank you very much, Matt. And it’s fantastic to be here in Cairns with Matt and with Minister Burke and, of course, with Richard from Cairns Airport to talk about exactly what this will mean to regional tourism and a place like Far North Queensland.

The Australian government has a goal to grow tourism in Australia to $230 billion by 2030; 95 billion of that is in regional Australia. We have set our goals squarely on increasing international visitation through regional Australia because we know this is exactly where people from overseas want to visit. As Matt said, we’ve got the reef, we’ve got the rainforest, we’ve got the cultural experiences that people want to enjoy. But unfortunately at the moment when you head to a regional airport like Cairns you’re faced with one of these. And we are going to scrap the passenger movement card.

So it’s a fantastic announcement that’s been led by Minister Burke, and I’ll let him talk about the rollout of what this will mean. But tourism has been asking for this for a very long time. So we’re pleased to be delivering again for the tourism industry here in Far North Queensland, around regional Australia but, of course, across the country. We know that this has already made a big difference, and Richard will talk to that about the passengers that have come from New Zealand. But this is about making Australia the destination that everyone around the world wants to visit.

We know that it will make a huge impact to all of those businesses here that make their livelihoods off tourism by increasing numbers, making the experience seamless and making the jobs of our security staff here even better.

I want to say thank you to Richard and the team for having us here. This is an incredible airport. We're very pleased to have supported the Cairns Airport with a NAIF loan. So they’ve expanded some of the work that they’re doing, and we’ll continue to back regional airports, like the Cairns Airport, like the Mackay Airport, and make sure that they are the world-class destinations that they deserve to be. So I’ll hand over to Richard.

RICHARD BARKER, NORTH QLD AIRPORTS CEO: Thank you. And I want to particularly thank Minister Burke for your support and moving towards a digital arrivals card. Clearly Matt has outlined the pain that we’ve all been through trying to find a pen that works and trying to remember where the passport is in your bag. So not only is there the obvious piece around improving the arrivals experience on the plane, but the other thing that actually delivers one of the real benefits is that by completing this online before you start the journey, is our various agencies, whose job is to keep Australia safe, can prioritise the people who need screening from those who don’t. And so airports that have implemented the full digital arrivals process it means that the time for clearance through security is much quicker because the people who have come from the safe destinations and have nothing to declare can simply go straight through and the people who’ve pre-filled in the fact they have things to declare get diverted off to screening areas. So you can deliver a better customer experience but you also deliver better security and biosecurity outcomes because the people who come in from countries where they are more likely than others to bring in items that we don’t want in Australia – whether it’s illicit items or whether it’s agricultural items we don’t want – they’re predetermined and diverted off.

So currently, when you do the paper form, there are border agency officials having to make that determination when they literally see that form for the first time. And so quite often people who have nothing to declare get caught up in a long line while they’re making those decisions. So if you fly into some other airports which have the full digital arrival process, it’s easy to look at airports like Changi which are truly world class, and that’s where we aspire and want to get to. But our near neighbours in New Zealand [indistinct]. They now have four arrivals lanes. So if you’re from a safe country like Australia, if you’ve got nothing to declare, you go straight through. If you’re from another country where there might have been issues, they get diverted off. So it’s a better experience for passengers on the plane but importantly it’s a better experience for you when you’re on the ground and you’re tired, you just want to get your bags and either go home or start your journey into paradise. So there’s a whole bunch of benefits that flow off the removal of this piece of paper, which actually, you know, as we lead into the 2032 Olympics is going to make Australia just take one of those little impediments out to getting to enjoy our region [indistinct].

MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS, TONY BURKE: Thanks very much. First of all, I’ve spent the last couple of days in the region and going up through the Torres Strait obviously – meeting people on Thursday Island then going out to Saibai for meetings there then down to Bamaga and the Cape as well. Listening to people and working through, off the success and the effectiveness that we’ve had with Operation BROADSTAFF in combating illegal fishing, how do we continue to increase that partnership with local communities. And there’s conversations that I’ll now be taking back to the Australian Border Force Commissioner, Gavan Reynolds, as a result of that to make sure that we can continue to increase the strength that we’ve seen in improving the actions against illegal fishing here at the northernmost and closest border that we have in Australia.

Secondly, I just want to refer quickly to an action that’s been taken by the eSafety Commissioner in terms of the Telegram platform. The eSafety Commissioner has announced that $54 million is going to be sought against Telegram. And Telegram it will be alleged before the court, has not done what needs to be done in terms of dealing with material that could be used to promote terror and make people unsafe in Australia. And so I’ll leave it to the eSafety Commissioner to make further comments on that, but I wanted to make people aware of that.

Finally, I want to talk about this thing. As Matt said, we’ve all been in situations as the plane descends when the last thing that you know as you go on holiday is the accommodation address at the hotel you might have booked in terms of the street address or access to a pen. But there’s also a whole lot of national security issues tied up with this. As Richard said, we want the advantage of being able, while people are in the air to start the work on making sure that we can profile to make sure that we know who we need to talk to further, who we don’t. We also then want the customer experience here to be when you land you are straight out and enjoying Cairns as soon as possible.

We want our tourists in the community enjoying the place, spending money. We don’t want them being delayed unnecessarily in a queue.

We also on occasions where someone gets sick, we need information for next of kin. We want that information to be digital, not in a warehouse in a box that we have to manually go to find and check whether we can actually read someone’s handwriting. So this is very much the past, and the digital future that we’ll have is people as this is rolled out over the next 12 to 18 months will find that when people arrive at Cairns Airport for their international holiday that they are straight out the doors and – I don’t need the other half of it either – that they’re straight out the doors and they’re in a situation where they are enjoying Cairns and spending their money in the best of Australian tourism.

Happy to take any questions.

JOURNALIST: Minister, just in relation to your trip to the Torres Strait, it’s been publicly obvious that there have been multiple Cape-class patrol boats [indistinct] maintenance in Cairns for a very long period of time. How many times has Border Force had to essentially borrow patrol boats from other agencies? Are you able to reassure people that there are enough boats in the water to keep illegal vessels out? We saw that boat arrival in Weipa just a few weeks ago.

BURKE: Yeah, obviously here is the most complex part of the entire Australian border because not only is it the closest border but you also have the operation of the treaty with the different villages, which I have to say personally, no matter how many times I’ve seen them on the map, you get a new appreciation when you land on Saibai and actually watch vessels make what’s effectively a 20-minute journey across to the Australian coast.

You’ve asked specifically about assets. The exchanging of assets and the cooperation with Defence has always been part of Border Force’s operation. It’s part of the operation here and it’s part of what we do across the west as well. The capability that we’ll continue to look at is how can we also start to improve capability with new assets, including drones, to be able to radically expand what the reach is of the assets that we have.

The extra layer that kept being raised with me in community is -- community have the same intention. We don’t – no-one wants goods that shouldn’t be making it into Australia making it here. No-one wants people who shouldn’t be making it to Australia making it here. And if they do, we want the fiercest action and for it to happen immediately.

So in addition to all those assets, there was the extra layer that was raised with me that I’ll be taking back to the commissioner of wanting a much stronger partnership with communities. When people report, they want to know that it’s acted on, but they also want information to be a two-way street. And I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people have been using the Border Watch platform in providing information for us, and we are grateful for that. We need to improve and uplift our return information in letting people know with confidence how that information has been used.

JOURNALIST: Do you specifically have a problem, though, with the reliability of the Cape-class patrol boats?

BURKE: We need to be constantly upgrading the equipment that we use across all platforms. And that work continues to be done. In terms of the issue of exchange and crossing over with Defence assets, that is how we have been operating throughout the whole history of Border Force. We’re grateful for that cooperation with Defence, but if I go to the next layer, the assets that we use need to be constantly kept up and over time replaced. But there is new capability that we also need and there is work being done as to what we can deal with uncrewed assets, some uncrewed are maritime assets, some uncrewed assets are drones.

JOURNALIST: On the Torres Strait, their climate case is in the Federal Court this week. What is your government doing to protect them from rising sea levels?

BURKE: Yeah, in terms of the – I might throw elsewhere if there’s more information on this. But can I say one thing that I’ve been very proud of with this government when we dealt with climate change is the action that we’ve taken on climate change but also the responsibility when people talk about climate change and islands going under in the Pacific, we have made sure that the Torres Strait is always part of that conversation, that when we talk about Tuvalu or Kiribati, we are also talking about Iama, Warraber and Poruma. That effectively there are islands here that are part of Australia where people live, where they have their homes, where the impact of climate change is real and it is being experienced every day.

That’s why I still shake my head when I look at our political opponents thinking that somehow we can turn our back and not act on climate change. It’s essential that we do. I appreciate you’ve asked about a specific legal case, but I’m not going to be able to talk about the courts.

JOURNALIST: What representation has your government made or DFAT made to the Syrian government in relation to Patrick Stevenson and Abdullah Glen Burgess and that alleged incident.

BURKE: Look, anything like that would be dealt with by DFAT. I’m not aware of any specific representations government to government that have been made there. Certainly, I would, given that you’ve raised it, express condolences to the Australian family of the man who was killed. It’s a horrific situation that has taken place there.

JOURNALIST: Has Australia had any engagement from Syria in relation to it? Is Syria –

BURKE: These things will be dealt with by DFAT. I’ve given you the information that I have.

JOURNALIST: Can you speak to as to whether Luke Gosling will be stood aside or down during the investigation?

BURKE: There are legal processes which have commenced there. You’d appreciate this has only unfolded this morning, and I’m not in a position to be able to provide further comment.

JOURNALIST: Are you disappointed by the news?

BURKE: I beg your pardon?

JOURNALIST: Are you disappointed by the news?

BURKE: I’ve just given that I’m not going to give further comment other than that there are legal processes that are now in play. I think people would expect me not to make further comment.

JOURNALIST: Are you concerned that Syria is becoming a magnet for radicalised Australians again? The suggestion that Patrick Stevenson was radicalised and travelled over there. Is that a growing problem?

BURKE: I’d answer more generally. Radicalisation is a growing problem. And the forms of radicalisation that we have always dealt with remain. But there are new forms of radicalisation that are very relevant to what I said at the start about the Telegram platform. People always think and rightly look to the national security implications of immigration, making sure that we are very careful as to who comes to Australia. But I am always vigilant about what comes over the border and who comes over the border. But can I say, we all need to be vigilant about what comes over the browser.

Increasingly we are seeing radicalisation and if I look at the caseload that we have, we have overwhelmingly people who are born here, who have been radicalised online. This is why we’re setting up the new centre to deal with online counterterrorism action that we take. And we need to realise that previously to organise actions that would harm Australians, people needed to travel country to country. They a whole lot happens directly over the internet where we need to be very much aware of that form of growing radicalisation as well.

JOURNALIST: What’s the government’s take on One Nation’s proposed law to block ISIS – the return of ISIS brides? Would you support them?

BURKE: Can I say a couple of things on this? First of all, the laws that we have that we use and that I have used are the laws that were put in place by the previous government that had already been decided went right to the limit of what you could do constitutionally – right to the limit. Every Australian, me included, doesn’t want these individuals back. When people have made a decision to join something as horrific as that, you don’t want them back. The reality is every country in the world has to take back its own citizens.

And I would just say people should be very wary of letting go of the principle that countries have to take their citizens back. I get that there are people we don’t want back. But can I say there are about 750 people every year who I make leave – about 750 people where I make sure that their countries have to take them back. And I would not want to go down a path where somehow we started a principle that countries don’t have to take their citizens back. The people who I get rid of have been involved in child exploitation, they’ve been involved in drugs, they’ve been involved – some of them are murderers, some of them are rapists. People have been involved in horrific crimes, and the countries of their citizenship, I’ll tell you, they don’t want them back, and I make sure they take them back.

It is absolutely in the interests of Australian national security that we keep to the principle that countries have to take their own citizens back. And anyone who wants to depart from that principle needs to explain why they think it would be okay for the 750 people every year who I make leave for them to have to stay here. Because I don’t think Australians would cop it.

JOURNALIST: With that in mind, will you seek to extradite Tareq Kamleh back to Australia to face terrorism charges from Iraq?

BURKE: Well, at the moment, he’s facing charges in the place where he is, as I understand it. And I expect he’ll face the legal consequences there. There are a number of people who are locked up overseas, where I am very glad they are locked up overseas.

JOURNALIST: Is he getting any assistance from Australia?

BURKE: Every Australian, if they make contact with an embassy, gets a level of consular support. But, you know, let’s not pretend that that’s about getting someone back here. We are not – we will not lift a finger to be able to assist his return.

JOURNALIST: Are you essentially been leaving it up to chance of when he might return, depending on what sentence –

BURKE: Any Australian – any government has a decision if they want to assist in repatriation. Governments make those decisions, and we make a decision that we will not assist in repatriation. We make an active decision that we will not assist in return. Sometimes citizens return to their own countries, and I said before, if we gave away from that principle, it would be a genuine risk to national security, and anyone who wants to argue that we should depart from that principle needs to explain why the 750 people I get rid of each year should stay here.

JOURNALIST: Do you think Australians should be concerned about how their personal information and social media data could be used under proposed changes to the US visa waiver process, which could require applicants to disclose five years of social media history to US officials [indistinct]?

BURKE: Look, our immigration system is a matter for Australia. The US immigration system is a matter for the United States. Thanks, everyone.